Loire Valley Wines

The Loire is the longest river in France, and its vineyards follow it upstream from the Atlantic near Nantes. Melon de Bourgogne makes Muscadet in the west, Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc lead in Anjou, Saumur and Touraine, and Sauvignon Blanc takes over at Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé. This page gathers the Loire wines of our cellar.
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Along the river

The Loire runs for about 1,000 kilometres, and its main wine country stretches from the Muscadet near Nantes to Sancerre and Pouilly, south-east of Orléans. The InterLoire wine board covers the Nantes vineyards, Anjou-Saumur and Touraine, while the Centre-Loire, upstream, has its own. More than 100 grape varieties grow along the river, and seven lead: Cabernet Franc, Chenin Blanc, Melon, Sauvignon Blanc, Gamay, Chardonnay and Grolleau.

Around Nantes and in western Anjou, the vines grow on the gneiss, mica schist, granite and volcanic rock of the Armorican Massif. Further east begins the limestone of the Paris basin, with the soft white stone called tuffeau around Saumur and in Touraine, where flinty clays also appear. The climate shifts too, from oceanic near the coast to more continental inland. On 2 December 2000, UNESCO listed the valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes-sur-Loire as a World Heritage site, a landscape of towns, châteaux and cultivated land.

Nantes and Muscadet

Muscadet comes from the Nantes vineyards, at the western end of the valley, and is made from Melon de Bourgogne under an oceanic climate. The appellation dates from 1937, and Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine includes crus communaux such as Clisson, Gorges and Le Pallet. The wine is often aged on its lees, sur lie, which gives it a rounder texture. Domaine de l'Écu, east of Nantes at Le Landreau, has farmed organically since 1972 and biodynamically since 1998. It ages much of its wine in clay amphorae and names some cuvées after their rock, such as Granite and Orthogneiss.

Anjou and Saumur

Anjou has two faces. Anjou noir, in the west, lies on the schists of the Armorican Massif, while Anjou blanc, to the east, lies on the limestone of the Paris basin. Chenin Blanc is the white grape of both. On schist it gives the dry wines of Savennières, on the right bank south-west of Angers. It also gives the sweet wines of the Coteaux du Layon, made in 20 communes along this small tributary. Richard Leroy and Mai and Kenji Hodgson farm at Rablay-sur-Layon, and Pierre Ménard works the schist slopes above the Layon at Faye-d'Anjou. Richard Leroy left the appellations and bottles his Chenin as Vin de France.

Saumur, on the tuffeau, makes white Chenin, sparkling wines and Cabernet Franc reds. The red wines of eight communes close to the town may add the name Champigny, as Saumur-Champigny. Clos Rougeard, at Chacé, was run from the 1980s by the Foucault brothers, then sold to the Bouygues brothers in 2017. It names its wines after parcels: Le Bourg and Les Poyeux in red, Brézé in white. Domaine Guiberteau farms Chenin and Cabernet Franc around Montreuil-Bellay and Brézé. La Porte Saint-Jean, also at Montreuil-Bellay, is the estate of Sylvain Dittière, who trained at Clos Rougeard.

Touraine: Vouvray, Chinon and Bourgueil

Touraine runs from Montsoreau to Blois and counts 17 appellations. Vouvray covers eight communes on the right bank, Tours included, and is made from Chenin Blanc, with a little Orbois allowed. Still Vouvray ranges from dry (sec) through medium-dry (demi-sec) to sweet (moelleux), and some is sparkling. The wine board gives Vouvray ten years or more, helped by deep cellars dug into the chalk hillsides. Domaine du Clos Naudin, held by the Foreau family since 1923, makes its sweeter wines only in years when the grapes ripen far enough on their own.

West of Tours, Chinon and Bourgueil are Cabernet Franc country, where the grape is called Breton. Bourgueil, on the right bank, ranges from light wines on gravel to long-keeping wines on tuffeau. Chinon, on the Vienne, is known above all for its reds, which the wine board gives about ten years. Philippe Alliet farms south-facing slopes of clay, limestone and silica at Cravant-les-Coteaux, in Chinon.

The Centre-Loire and the upper river

Upstream, Sauvignon Blanc leads the Centre-Loire. Sancerre lies on the left bank east of Bourges, and Pouilly faces it on the right bank. Their soils are marls full of small fossil oysters, called terres blanches, limestone called caillottes, and flint, which can give the wines a gunflint note. Sancerre also makes red and rosé from Pinot Noir, while Pouilly-Fumé is made from Sauvignon Blanc alone. Alexandre Bain farms in Pouilly with horses and has sold his wines as Vin de France since the appellation refused them in 2014.

Further up the river, west of Roanne, the Côte Roannaise grows Gamay on granite between 350 and 550 metres, an appellation since 1994. Domaine Sérol farms there at Renaison, with the local Gamay called Saint-Romain.

Chenin, styles and keeping

Chenin Blanc explains much of the Loire's range. Picked early, it gives taut dry wines and the base for sparkling wines; picked late, it gives the sweet wines of the Layon and Vouvray. The wine board says some vintages of dry Savennières and sweet Coteaux du Layon can age for several decades, and that Saumur-Champigny gains finesse after a few years. Several of the growers named here farm organically or biodynamically. See our organic wines, biodynamic wines and natural wines pages, our white wines and red wines, and for older bottles our collector wines. The wines above are the Loire wines of our cellar.